A Fate Worse Than Chess
by A Wolf's Nightmare
Summary: Aaron has to face Death one more time.
1. 5:02

"_My time is running out…" Aaron says._

"_You understand what this is, don't you?" The Silent asked._

"_Humphrey… the wolf who kills Aaron…" The Teselecta says._

"_Whatever happens now, you do not interfere." Aaron tells the gang._

"_Who wants me dead?" Aaron asks the Teselecta._

"_The Silence. The Silence is not a species, it is a religious order. Their belief is that Silence will fall when the oldest wolf is dead."_

"_And who is going to kill me?"_

"_Unknown." _

Jasper Park, time, 5:02 p.m.

It was a nice day in Canada. The nicest it could ever be. The War of the Roses enters its second year and many people were happy.

"_It's another beautiful day in Canada. There are reports of solar flares that are interrupting radio signals."_ A newsman says.

Canadian picnickers are warned not to feed the pterodactyls and Charles Dickens is interviewed on television about his new Christmas ghost special.

"_Holy Roman Emperor Dr. Jack returns to Buckingham Senate on his personal mammoth." _Another newsman says.

"Not too many late nights in Gaul, I hope." Mr. Jones says as he checks Dr. Jack's blood pressure.

"No… I just had an argument with Cleopatra. Dreadful woman…"

"Great dancer, though…" Mr. Jones added.

Dr. Jack looks at his grandfather clock. It says 5:02.

"What time do you have?" He asks.

"It's 2 minutes past five." He checked his watch.

"It's always two minutes past five. Day or night. Why's that?"

"That is the time." Mr. Jones reassured him taking off his blood pressure gauge.

"And the date. It's always September 25th. Does it not bother you?"

"It's always been like this. It hasn't bothered me a bit."

"I want to see the soothsayer." Dr. Jack ordered. "Where is he?"

"In the tower… where you threw him." His soothsayer dragged from the tower.

The soothsayer is chained up and is thrown into the office of Dr. Jack. The soothsayer is Aaron.


	2. A Fate Worse Than Chess

"Tick Tock goes the clock as the old saying goes. But they don't, do they? The clocks never tick. Something has happened to time." Dr. Jack says.

"That's what you say, what you never stop saying. What happened to time?" He asked.

Aaron looks up and looks at him straight in the eye. "A wolf…"

In a flashback, Aaron wants to know why he must die.

"_Imagine you were dying… and all alone. Just when you think it couldn't get worse… you looked up and saw the face of the devil himself."_ A voice chimed up. It was Aaron.

"Hello, Dalek." The scene pans to a Dalek dying in a spaceship.

"Emergency, weapons disabled…" The Dalek said powering down as Aaron took the data on the Silence from a dying Dalek.

"Hush now…" Aaron tells the Dalek. He pointed the vortex manipulator at it and got all the information.

He then is zapped away to a cantina on Rexal four. He finds Father Gideon Vandaleur.

"Vandaleur now… get him…" He tells the manager at the bar.

"Who says he's here?" He asks gruffly. Aaron puts down the eyestalk of the Dalek on the counter.

Aaron is sitting at a table when Vandaleur appears and sits across from him.

"Father… former member of the Silence. My condolences…."

"Your what?" He asked.

"Gideon Vandaleur has been dead for six months…" He then pointed his manipulator at the being and disabled the systems.

"May I speak to Captain Lavender?" Aaron asks.

"What did you do with our system?" Captain Lavender asked.

"Body changing Teselecta. Never gets boring. You can shape shift into anyone. But seeing as you changed into this, you must be looking for something from the Silence."

"What do you want to know?" He asks.

"Their weakest link…" He then points him at Gantok, the Silence's agent. They play a game of live chess.

"The crowd is getting restless… They know your queen is your only legal move, except you already moved it 12 times, which means there are four million volts running through it."

The crowd was cheering at the excitement of this. "I'm a dead man…"

"Only if you tell me what I need to know."

"Why don't you speak to Losvid?"

"Losvid is dead… the Monks beheaded him at Demon's Run."

"Beseech the game, and I'll take you to him." Aaron does just that. Gantok takes him to Losvid's head in the Seventh Transept.

"Seventh Transept, it's where they keep the heads of those who behead."

"Why are some in boxes?" Aaron asked.

"Because some are rich. And Losvid was always very rich…"

Aaron used his manipulator to open the box. It was Losvid.

"Thanks for taking me here."

"No problem…." He then pointed a gun at him. "Makes it easier to bury you… No one beats me at chess…" A trap door is then opened beneath him and he falls through.

He is then eaten alive by the skulls that are kept there.

Losvid then wakes up from this as Aaron seals the trap door with his manipulator.

"Who's there?" Aaron walked up to him. "Oh Aaron… it's you… the monks, they betrayed me. How are bad are my injures?"

"Well…" Aaron starts before Losvid starts laughing.

"You should see your face!" Losvid laughed.

_Back to the present…_

"This is absurd… talking heads… carnivorous skulls… I don't know why I'm listening to you…"

"Because in an alternate reality, you and I are friends…"

"You mentioned a wolf…"

"Yes, I'm getting to him…"

"It's a him? What's he like?"

"Hell… In gray fur…"

"Tell me more…."


	3. Fixed Points

"Oh, it's not so bad…" Losvid said. "I got a chip fitted and the Wi-Fi down here is excellent."

"I need to know about the Silence…"

"Oh, the Silence is a religious order…."

"And they want me dead…" Aaron interrupted.

"You're a wolf with a long and dangerous past. And they think you're future must be prevented…."

"You could've told me this the last time we met…" Aaron complained.

"It was a long day and I got beheaded."

"Then why do I have to die?"

"They believe that the oldest wolf will be dead and silence will fall…"

_Back to the present…_

"But why did silence need to fall?" Dr. Jack asked as him and Aaron walked outside the office and into a hall.

"What if you knew that there was a wolf who knew a terrible secret. How would you make sure it was never spoken?"

"I would kill the wolf…"

"And silence will fall… all these years it was my silence, my death…" Aaron looked around.

"Why are we here?" He asked.

"This is the senate room." Dr. Jack informed him. There were the letters WVM written on the walls. "I can't get those letters off my walls…"

"Why did we leave your office?" Aaron looked at his hand. "Why do have your revolver?"

"You're dangerous company, soothsayer."

Aaron looked at his arm and saw a marker pen mark on his fur.

"Finish your story." Dr. Jack said.

Taking Losvid's head with him, Aaron determines to continue his farewell tour.

"Aaron, please. Open my hatch. I got an awful headache. My head feels like a great big weight is on it."

Aaron opened the hatch and saw that Losvid's head was upside down.

"Oh, I see…"

"Why this lakeside? Why…. Jasper?"

"It's a still point in time. Makes it easier to create a fix point."

"I can just run…"

"You know why you must die…"

"Not today…"

"What's the point of delaying?"

"Been knocking about. I could save the dodo, join the Beatles. I can time travel Losvid…"

"Time catches up with everyone…"

"Well it has never laid a finger on me!" His manipulator rang. He picked it up.

"Yes?"

"I'm afraid to tell you this Aaron… this is The Nightmare's girlfriend, Brianna. The Nightmare has died…" This is when Aaron's bravado crumbles.

"He had told me about you… the wolf who wouldn't give up…" This was it. His friend that couldn't die had died. This is when Aaron knew his time has come.

He gives the Teselecta invitations to deliver. "Surely you can deliver it yourself."

"It would mean crossing my own time stream."

"This is it, your final journey. You can count on us to deliver."

Aaron then starts to leave. "Aaron…" The Teselecta spoke up. He turned. "Is there nothing we can do?"

Aaron says nothing and walks out. "This is the hardest part to believe. Why would you invite your friends to see your death?" Dr. Jack asked.

"I had to die… I didn't have to die alone…"

He goes to the lakeside with Humphrey, Kate, Hutch and Claudette.

"No matter how dark it got I could turn and find them by my side."

An impossible robot rises from the lake and Aaron goes to meet it. It is Humphrey, trapped in the suit by the Silence.

"Everything was in place… I only had to die…"

Aaron walked up to the robot. "Well, then. Here we are at last…"

"I have no control over the suit, run…"

"I've ran all my life."

"This can't happen…"

"I forgive you, always and completely forgiven." Aaron, shutting his eyes as Humphrey's arm rises to deliver the three deadly blows.

There are five bursts that make him flinch. Aaron opens his eyes.

"What happened?"

"I think I just drained my weapon systems…" Humphrey said with a smile.

"But this is a fix point in time…"

"Fix points can be rewritten…"

"No they can't of course they can't!" The world then began to shatter.


	4. Lakeside Event

"Well what happened?" Dr. Jack asked.

"Nothing."

"Nothing?"

"If you prefer, nothing and everything is happening. Time is dying. Like a record…"

"A record? Haven't you heard of downloads?" Dr. Jack sniffed the air. "Gun smoke… I appear to have had fire this…"

"Don't panic…" Aaron says. He looks over at his arms.

Tally marks have appeared on the Aaron's arms. They look up. The ceiling is infested with dozens of Silent's.

Before they can attack, a grenade rolls into the hall and a troop of soldiers under an eye patched Kate invade.

Dr. Jack points a gun at her. Aaron stops him. "No, she's on our side…"

Aaron then sees that she is wearing an eye patch. "No, why are you wearing that?"

She shoots Aaron with a stun gun.

He wakes from the stun gun in Amy's office on a train bound for Area 52 inside the Great Pyramid of Giza.

Aaron looks around and sees Kate. "Kate…"

"Those stun guns aren't fun… I wanted to avoid a long conversation."

"Kate… Kate… from Jasper Park… you need to listen to me… you and I were best friends in another reality… we travelled together…"

Aaron doesn't notice the pictures around the base. "And if you tried, if you really tried…" Aaron picked up a model of a vortex manipulator and pointed it at her. Aaron then saw it.

Drawn pictures of their adventures. From vampires to leprechauns to cannibals to enemies that they defeated and etc.

"You look rubbish…" Kate said.

"Cool office. Why can't I have an office? Don't like the eye patch though."

"It's not an eye patch. Time's gone wrong. There's a whole team of us working on it."

"I like your office. I never had an office… or a train… or a train/office…"

"God, I missed you…" Kate hugged him.

"OK, hugging and missing… where's Hutch?"

"Hutch… your boyfriend?" She held up a picture of Hutch that she drew. "This him?"

"More or less…"

"It's so hard to keep remembering…"

"It's not your fault… time's gone wrong… do you remember why?"

"The lakeside…"

"The lakeside, I died. But the two versions of it are both happening at the same time…"

"I mean, can't we just stay like this?" Kate asked. Aaron looked at her in a serious way.

"Time isn't just frozen… it's disintegrating. It will spread and spread and all of reality will fall apart."

Just then a wolf came in. It was Hutch.

"We're almost at the destination." He said as he then left.

"Why are you older? If time is not passing, then how can you still age?"

"Time is still passing for me… for every explosion there's an epicenter. I'm that center. I'm what's wrong with reality."

"What's wrong with you?" Kate asked. Aaron smiled a bit.

"I'm still alive…"

Aaron, Kate and Hutch arrive at Area 52.

"You have to put it on, sir." Hutch told Aaron.

"An eye patch. What for?"

"It's not an eye patch. It's an eye-drive. We've created this so we can remember the Silent's when not looking at them."

"We've captured more than a hundred Silent's." Kate informed him. They then entered a room where the Silent's were kept.

They saw them in big glass tubes with water in them. Hutch then looked at the Silent's looking back at them. "They seem to be noticing."

"Yeah, they would…" Aaron said. They walk to the King's Chamber, where Humphrey awaits them.

"Hey, honey, I'm home…" Aaron says to Humphrey.

"And what sort of time do you call this?" Humphrey asked.


	5. Attack of the Robots

Aaron sees that they captured a Silent and had it tied up in a chair.

"_The end of time… the death of time… why couldn't you just die?" _TheSilent asked in a taunting manner.

"I've like to call myself the wolf with many lives."

Aaron goes to take Humphrey's hand, but he knows they are the poles of an explosion waiting to destroy this timeline. He has him handcuffed.

"Ah, ah…." Humphrey said in a taunting manner.

The Silent's that are trapped start to escape. One Silent starts to break the glass as another one does the same.

Hutch starts to notice something wrong. He sees water dripping from the ceiling and onto the floor.

"I'm not going to kill you… if it's the last thing I do, I will not kill you…"

"We have to touch or else time will disintegrate!" Aaron yelled.

Kate then feels a droplet of water on her head. "Uh Aaron?" Kate says. As they look up.

Hutch then sees a Silent start breaking the glass.

"How many Silent's are trapped here?" Aaron asked. The Silent who was tied up in the chair starts to speak.

"_They were never trapped…"_ It says simply. As the soldiers retreat to the King's Chamber, they were then killed by the Silent's.

Hutch stays to hold off the Silent's while Humphrey, Kate, and Aaron go to the apex of the pyramid.

The door flies open; Hutch falls to the floor as the Silent's entered and begin to electrocute him. Atop the Great Pyramid, Aaron looks and sees a distress beacon.

"A timey-wimey distress beacon. Who built this?"

"I did." Humphrey said.

"That's all you have, a distress beacon?!"

"I've been calling the universe across all of time. I've only needed to say one thing: Aaron is dying. Please help."

"That means nothing to anyone…. Worse it's stupid…"

"We've barricaded the door. Tell him… Humphrey, tell him…" Kate insists.

"Those reports of the solar flares are not real. It's them… all the people saying "Yes, of course"."

"No one can help me. I _must_ die to prevent all of time disintegrating."

"You've saved so many people, did so much… did you think that when you're time came you'd do more than just ask?"

"I have to die…" 

"Shut up! You can't die without knowing you are loved by so many and so much." Aaron said nothing for a moment. Humphrey was really distraught about this. He then spoke up.

"Uncuff me…" He says. Kate went up to uncuff him.

"Alright… I'm going to tell you something... something that you must never tell anyone else."

"Of course." Aaron then leans in and whispers.

"I just told you where I'm really from… not Earth… but, some place…" Humphrey watched him in awe. "Now I need your help…" Humphrey did what he wanted.

They touch hands and time moves again. Humphrey shoots Aaron thrice, preventing his regeneration. He dies. The distorted timeline vanishes.

_Tick Tock, goes the clock, he cradled and he mourned her…_

_Tick Tock, goes the clock, now Humphrey finally kills him…_

Humphrey, Kate, and Hutch were teleported into Jasper. Everything was back to normal… or so it would seem.

"How are you feeling, Hutch?" Humphrey asked him. He has been through so much and Aaron was finally dead.

"He's dead…" He said. "How do you think I feel? I need to talk to him…"

"You know I shouldn't tell you this."

"What?"

"Do you want to know what he whispered in my ear?"

"He said he told you he was from a different planet…"

"Rule #1…" Humphrey said with a smile.

"Aaron lies…" Hutch whispered. "What did he whisper in your ear? Humphrey?"

He laughed as he told him. Hutch danced in glee. He couldn't have been happier. Kate then joins them and Humphrey explains to her.

"Who's carrying me?" Losvid asked as a Monk took his head into the Seventh Transept. "I demand that my doors are open… I'm a head, I have rights…"

The Monk placed the box on a pedestal and opened the small door. Losvid gasped.

"Is it you? It is, isn't it? I can sense it. How can it be you, how can you possibly escaped?"

"_Is there nothing we can do?" The Teselecta asked. Aaron says nothing and walks out. He then runs back in._

"_Actually, thinking about it…" Aaron says with a smile._

"_Look into my eye…" Aaron whispered in Humphrey's ear. Humphrey looked and saw that there was another Aaron inside of Aaron. "Shush…" _

The "Monk" then revealed itself as Aaron. "The Teselecta. An Aaron in an Aaron suit."

"So, you're going to do this, let them all think you're dead?"

"I got to big, too noisy… time to step back into the shadows…"'

"But you're a fool none the less… the last scheme of things is still waiting for you. The attack is still out there…"

"Goodbye, Losvid…" He saluted. He then left.

"You can't run from the attack of the robots!" Losvid yelled out. Aaron smiled.


End file.
